


Nightmares

by sunkelles



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Barbara Gordon is a badass in any timeline, Because I DO WHAT I WANT, Bluepulse, M/M, Mentions of Barbara Gordon as Oracle, Nightmares, also jason's on the team as red hood, bluepulse week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-05
Updated: 2016-10-05
Packaged: 2018-08-19 10:16:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8201657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunkelles/pseuds/sunkelles
Summary: Bart wakes up back in his future.





	

**Author's Note:**

> here's a line of poetry that goes well with this fic
> 
> (I think I made you up inside my head) 
> 
> \- Mad Girl's Love Song, Slyvia Plath

The first thing Bart realizes when he wakes up is that he's definitely not in his bed. Whatever's beneath him is hard, and unyielding. Did he fall asleep on the ground or something? He knows that he can; he used to sleep on rock and rubble, but he doesn't know why he would.

Bart opens up his eyes. He doesn't see the Garricks' white ceiling. He doesn't see walls or windows, or even trees and grass. He sees a vast sky filled with ash.

"What the hell," he says, pushing himself off the ground. Is he dreaming? He's had nightmares like this before, but never this vivid.

He can smell the pollution. Hell, he can even taste it, with a hint of ash on his tongue. His dreams are never this sensory. He turns his head, and sees the ruins of Mount Justice, and Nathaniel looking down at him in concern.

"Nathaniel?" Bart asks, terror growing even worse.

"You were out cold," Nathaniel says.

He's there, bald head, kind eyes, inhibitor collar and all, "I was worried you weren't gonna wake up." That's something people did back then, fall asleep and never wake up, passing away in their sleep from whatever godforsaken thing finally did them in. There's a reason Bart didn't want to come back.

"This can't be happening," Bart says, numbly. He brings his hands to his neck, and curls them around a cold, metal collar. This is even worse than when he left.

"Kid," Nathaniel says, "are you alright?"

"Nonononononono NO!" Bart says, frantically, "this can't be- this can't be happening! I went to the past, I fixed everything!"

"Bart," Nathaniel says gently, "you couldn't ever get that time machine of yours running. There's no fixing this. We're stuck."

"But I've already done it," Bart says. He remembers everything. He remembers whole years of life, minute details about people he never could have met.

"I saved grandpa, and I saved you, and then we stopped the Reach. And I become Kid Flash and I- I have a boyfriend and-" This can't be real. None of it can be real. Nathaniel sends him a concerned look at that.

"Did you eat something rotten before bed again?" he asks. Nervous laughter catches in his throat.

"No," he says, "All of that happened." He saved the world. He made a better one. He found a family and he fell in love. They can't take that away from him now.

 

He can't even run now.

 

"You must have dreamed that, Bart," he says, "because none of that happened." He feels like all the ash in the sky has come down on him. He just- he can't accept this. It's not his life anymore.

He remembers laughing about that fucking sand scene from Star Wars, and how Grandpa Barry loved the new Star Wars films but Grandma Iris won't even watch them. He remembers how Jaime loves Disney movies, even though teenage boys are supposed to be above that. He remembers their first kiss, how they hadn't gotten the angle right and had bumped noses before they started laughing and tried again. He remembers Jay's favorite brand of coffee and Joan's favorite tv show, and Jaime's favorite flavor of ice cream. He couldn't have dreamed that all up in a night, right? Right?

"I'm sorry," Nathaniel says, "but this is it, Bart. This is all there is." The ashes fall like snow, and Bart realizes that he's right. Whatever else happened, he's here now, back in the future. With a time machine that never worked and no hope of anything getting better.

 

He curls up in a ball in front of Mount Justice, waiting for the bugs to finally drag him back to a work camp. Maybe they'll just kill him this time. It doesn't matter either way. There's no saving the world, and there's no use living in this one.

 

He feels a hand on his shoulder, and groggily goes to bat it away. It's either Nathaniel or a bug, and he's not keen on either one of them right now. If they want him they'll have to drag him in.

"Bart?" A familiar voice asks. It sounds like Jaime, but that can't be. Bart doesn't even know if he was real. He opens his eyes cautiously, ready for disappointment. Instead he sees Jaime looking down at him in concern.

He speeds forward (at full force, no inhibitor collar to hinder him), and wraps his arms around Jaime in the tightest hug he can manage, nuzzling his way into his neck. Jaime actually looks confused, like Bart wouldn't hold onto him and never let go after something like that. It occurs to him that he doesn't even know what's going on.

"What happened?" Bart asks.

"Scarecrow hit us with a dose of toxin," Jaime says, "got all of us good." It takes a moment for it to come back to him. Scarecrow's fear toxic induces nightmares, brings the victim's worst fears to the surface and throws them in their face. They were running a mission against him.

 

Bart looks around the room, and catches a glimpse of Beta squad. Batgirl, Red Hood, Wonder Girl, Bumble Bee and Static are all awake, but they all look shaken. Out of all them, he thinks Jaime might look the worst. And Red Hood actually died. Bart finally lets go of him. He doesn't want to, but he realizes that it's probably weird for the rest of the members of the Team. Jaime's not big on PDA anyways.

 

"What is it, Blue?" Bart asks, sending Jaime a confused look.

"I, uh, I didn't expect you'd want to see me, after whatever you dreamed," Jaime says softly, refusing to meet his eyes.

"I actually, I didn't dream you went on mode," Bart says. Technically that's not true. In Bart's future Jaime did go on mode. He'd likely been moded for forty years. But Big Bad Blue didn't even show up in his dream, so Bart thinks the lie of omission isn't going to hurt anyone.

"What did you dream?" Jaime asks, concern etched on his face. Then he glares, and turns his head.

"No, we aren't asking for tactical reasons-" Jaime takes a deep breath, and tries to calm down. Whatever his scarab said must have really pissed him off.

"You don't have to answer," Jaime says, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked, cariño."

"Babe," Bart says, "you're my boyfriend. You can ask shit like that if you want." He takes a deep breath, and tries to figure out how to word it.

"I dreamed I never knew you," Bart says, "and that was worse." A look passes across Jaime's face, something delighted and completely surprised. Of course, he has to go and ruin it.

"That's really sappy," Jaime says with a grin. Bart glares.

"Disney movies," Bart threatens. Jaime actually looks shocked, almost betrayed.

"You wouldn't," Jaime says.

"I might," Bart says, more teasing this time, "if you don't stop being a hypocrite." Jaime glares, but it's the fond kind. The "what am I going to do with this idiot I date" kind of glare, which is honestly Bart's favorite kind of glare.

 

The rest of the squad pick themselves up off the ground. They look ready to do something. Bart guesses they made some decisions while he and Jaime were busy being couple-y.

"Are you two done?" Batgirl asks, raising an eyebrow. Barbara Gordon was one of the most well-respected super heroes to ever live in his timeline, because the Reach overlooked her. No powers, and paralyzed from the waist down? Oracle seemed like no threat to them. She released half of the Reach's private information on the internet before they even realized it was happening, and she went into hiding before they could catch her. She operated in secret for twenty five years before they caught her, the last superhero on the planet earth.

 

The Barbara Gordon of this timeline is no less intimidating.

 

"Sí," Jaime says, rubbing the back of his neck. Bart just nods frantically. The rest of the group fills in around them, and all of them look like they've had the worst night of their life. They're trying to pretend they didn't though.

"We need to go to the Watchtower and regroup," Batgirl says, "we'll discuss what went wrong with Aqualad, and try to figure out a different course of attack." The group nods. They have their orders. They'll try to put all their personal demons behind them, at least until they get done. 


End file.
